Switched Reality
by Fionarox
Summary: What if Raven had found Fiona and Zeke, not Van? What if Van was the bad guy with an unsatible thirst for vengence againce the world? Raven and his new-found friends go on an adventure to stop the madman called 'Van'. REVAMPED
1. Chapter One

Switched Reality

By

Fionarox  
  
**Chapter One**

The wind colony really was a peaceful place to live. A peacefully boring place, that is. There were no aspects of danger or adventure, (much to the mothers' delight), only farmers, farming zoids and farming. There weren't any battles, even though there was a rumor of war on the way. All day, market ran sluggishly, and people cooked, cleaned and, of course, **farmed**.

It really could get old.

A young teen sighed quietly as the wind _fssshed_ through the long grass that crept up the broad hill that he lay on. The windmills behind him hummed as they spun in the wind, creating the energy and electricity that the colony depended on. His sharp violet gaze searched the colony, and a pale hand reached to brush the dark sable hair out of his gaze. Finally, he got up, brushed imaginary dust off clothes that had seen better days, and picked up the hoverboard he had brought up with him. No one was watching, and Maria was nowhere to be seen. His adoptive 'sister' was very protective of him; for all that he was an orphan.

'What a boring place.' He muttered.

Kicking the board down, he quickly jumped on the hovering board, and jetted off into the surrounding desert. The Wind colony was only an oasis here. Without the energy the wind provided, the desert would erode the grass and the farming that many had so carefully cultivated.

Feeling the wind against his face, the young man known only as 'Raven' sighed, and smiled gently, as he clutched the hoverboard's controller in his hand. Here, he didn't have to bother with the scathing comments of the pathetic men who only knew how to farm land and coax life out of barren soil.

Raven had no need for such things. He yearned for adventure, for the unexpected and for thrills beyond the small village his mother had brought him to. And then she had done him the inconvenience of dying, leaving him with no known relatives, and nothing to his name.

For now, it was all he could do to escape his minders and feel the desert sun and fresh wind on his face.

But today, he was headed for the ruins, about a mile from the village. It had been explored many, many times before, but Raven felt too energetic to stay in the Colony today. A dash for the ruins, through wild zoids territory was about as adventurous as it got around here, he thought wryly before his ears heard the gigantic thundering that was a zoid's footsteps. He turned around, and sneered. It was a Scorpion like zoid, and it looked pilot-less. He sped up to stay away from the murderous creature, and the smile left his face as he concentrated on gaining more ground than the mad zoid.

Finally, the ruins came into view, and with it, sanctuary.

Thinking rapidly, Raven tilted the board's surface as he neared the building, and nearly broke his thumb, pressing so hard on the projector button as he zoomed up the vertical surface of the ruins that were built into the cliff

As he leaned back to watch the wild zoid run into the building, his hoverboard caught on an edge, and threw him into an old room, via window. His surprised expression was quickly wiped away.

'Agh!' He clutched his ankle in pain. His foot had been caught on a rocky ledge inside the building, making him spin into a wall, landing in a crumpled heap. As he picked himself up, he gingerly put some weight on his injured foot, before whipping the weight off again.

'Stupid.' He muttered in a long chain. ' Stupid stupid stupid.'

He then turned and spotted his hoverboard, and nearly banged his head on the wall in frustration.

'I can't believe this. My board's shot, my legs broken, and I'm trapped in the ruins by a wild zoid.' He ground out through clenched teeth. As if to aggravate him further, the scorpion like zoid banged against the wall outside, trying to destroy the ruins on top of him most like. He coughed heavily as dust seeped through the buildings, and it tilted slightly, startling the teen.

Would they fall?

He waved a hand in front of his face, still coughing and struggled forward on his one good leg, using the longest piece of his hoverboard as a cane. He reached the wall, groping blindly, and felt the wall start to cave in. He hastily stepped back with a muttered oath as the wall crumbled away, revealing-

'A secret passage?' Raven couldn't believe his eyes.

He made his way forward, until he stumbled over a rock that was conveniently in his path. He lurched forward, and landed with an _oomph _on something cool and hard. Looking up, he saw that a giant capsule had broken his fall.

Speechless for a few moments, he ran his hand on the smooth glass of the thing. Looking inside, he spotted a dark shape shifting in a mass of...something. His hands trembled as he silently pushed a green button on the capsule's side, and fell back with a cry of pain as the container began to pulse and tremble.

With a huge, metallic cry, a silver dinosaur type zoid, very small considering other horrific monsters, staggered out of the capsule, breaking the glass and sending it arching through the air. Raven flinched as the glass spiraled past him, one drawing a long line of red on his cheek. The zoid shuddered to a stop, and collapsed. He was, after all, just immerging from a thousand-year slumber. Of course his body functions wouldn't be what they used to right after he was released. The zoid slowly rose on his feet, and roared at the stunned Raven.

'Hey now, I'm **not** going to hurt you.' Raven said, watching as the zoid went into attack mode. A silver flash was Raven's only warning as the zoid lashed out with his tail at raven's face, and connected. But the human didn't go down. His head merely turned with the hit, absorbing most of the energy, and then he turned to look at the stunned zoid. Raven raised a hand to his red cheek, and scowled at the zoid.

'You didn't have to do that.'

The zoid roared in response.

Raven sighed heavily, and sat on the ground, his leg beginning to ache. Seeing his opponent weakened, the zoid sniffed, his sensors searching for something. His optical sensor found the other capsule, and silver zoid began to snuffled about the capsule, the one that had been right next to his own. It was a smaller version, but raven knew that zoids could come in different sizes. He hoped another zoid wasn't in the capsule.

He got his wish (hope), albeit it wasn't exactly what he expected.

As the unnamed zoid pressed a red button, raven watched as the capsule shattered, and a young girl, with floating blonde hair, abnormally pale skin, and vermilion eyes. He watched as she stepped out, and promptly collapsed.

What surprised him more was that killer zoid seemed parental towards the child, and nuzzled her gently before standing over her protectively. Did it think Raven was a threat?

'Are you alright?' he asked, trying to make himself seem indifferent, but rapidly failing. It wasn't everyday you watched a zoid and a girl be born. Perhaps this was where babies came from? Raven's cool mind dismissed the foolish idea that popped into his head. He reached out a hand as if in peace towards the pair, and the zoid kept a wary eye on him. But Raven persisted, reaching more, finally standing and hopping as slowly and as undangerously as he could towards the zoid. His hand rested briefly on the zoids cheek before the silence that had surrounded the trio shattered as the Guysak slammed into the room from the outside. Well. Raven snorted. It seemed they were on ground level after all.

'Turn over the silver zoid, and maybe I'll let you and your girlfriend go.' Boomed over the speakers, and Raven could hardly contain himself. That thing had a pilot?

'Why don't you beat it back to whatever junk yard you got that zoid from, huh?' he said, standing defensively in front of the zoid, and missing the zoid's look of gratitude.

The pilot's angry reply was to shoot a missile.

'Get out of the way!' he yelled angrily to the two as he hopped away from the projection missile's path of destruction. The zoid picked up the silent girl and panels in his back opened to reveal boosters. He rocketed away, and grabbed Raven's cloak in passing, dragging the two humans with him as he soared out of the way of the missile, through the gaping hole the Guysak had made, and into the sky. Now that they were out of the dark interior of the ruins, Raven could vaguely see the girl was dressed in strange, skin-tight clothes. He stared at her odd clothing, and, as they landed, gave her his cloak to use as an outer layer. She tied it around her neck, effectively covering everything, although she didn't understand why she had to wear it.

She stared at the way he held himself, and looked at the silver zoid.

'Zeke?'

The zoid roared his approval, and cast his gaze about, searching for something. Raven was clueless.

'What are y-' he was cut off as the strange girl leaned over and kissed him.

Zeke looked thunderstruck.

Just as Raven looked. 'He pulled away, and spat contemptuously. 'What was that for?'

She stared levelly with him. 'I transferred energy. You can stand now, correct?'

He stared at his healed leg, and brought his gaze back up to the strange girl.

'Who are you?' he asked, his voice with a bit of an edge to it.

'Fiona.' She answered promptly.

'Fiona, huh? Well-' once again he was cut off, this time as the zoid that had been attacking them attacked again. While the two had been talking, he had sneaked through the dunes of sand to the trio. Zeke roared a warning, scooped up the two and headed to the ruins of a zoid.

'What are you doing?' Raven cried over the wind, getting just a teensy bit angry. He hated not knowing what was going on. Fiona's surreal eyes glanced at the ruins in satisfaction, and Raven sighed as Zeke prodded him forward. Raven clambered into the pilot's seat, and Zeke roared in approval once more, before transforming into silver energy and diving into the zoid's core, reviving it, and rejuvenating it.

Blue and orange, red and green, colors flooded the zoid, and Zeke roared from somewhere inside the core. Raven smiled wickedly.

'Yes.'

And then he attacked the zoid whose footsteps had thundered after him for a minute too long. Fiona sat and watched, her white-blonde hair floating in the breezes created by the two pilots. Needless to say, the other pilot was readily dispatched, and his zoid froze. Raven's zoid roared triumph, and the pilot leaped from the machine. 'Yes!' His face, normally unreadable, was impossibly stretched by a smile. Somehow Fiona knew that he didn't smile often.

She watched as he ran to her, and his eyes were alight. She searched his eyes for the hate and anger he always poured, but only found a child's delight. She nodded to herself, and her mouth curved upwards as she watched him come nearer. Perhaps that was what it meant to smile? Zeke, still in the zoid, bounded to her, and reached her a few minutes before Raven. She stroked his head with her small hand, and watched him settled himself with the sound of muffled thunder into the sand. Raven stumbled as the shock went through his legs, but he still made it to the girl.

'Thank you!' he cried, and promptly hugged her tight. She was as surprised as he. Raven hadn't meant to do that. But he was so excited! He could leave the colony, and go adventuring! 'Come with me to my village?' he asked, calmer now. He stared at the impassive zoid, and knew suddenly that they would follow each other, the girl and this zoid.

'Of course.' She replied, and his heart soared. He could leave, they could leave, and he could figure out why the girl and this zoid were in the capsule later.

Today was really turning out to be a good day.


	2. Chapter Two

Thank you to all the reviews! I love the feedback!

Chapter Two

Raven sighed as they made their way back to the village in Zeke's huge form of the Shield Liger. It's massive paws crunched through the sand, and Fiona sat in the back, answering the questions Raven was free to now ask.

'Where are you from?'

'Dunno.'

'Why were you in the capsule?'

'Dunno...'

'Who are you?'

'Fiona.' She said, almost brightly.

Raven sighed. That was as much as he'd gotten from her in the hour they'd been walking. They hadn't directly gone back to the village; Raven had gone back to the ruins to pick up his hoverboard. Or rather, the pieces of the hoverboard. The device had cracked in half, and it could be repaired. But Raven wasn't going to wait that long before he left the pitiful colony behind, and walked out of the small existence that others would force upon him.

He turned his head as Fiona poked him in the back of his neck.

'What was that for?' he demanded, not rudely, more, inquiringly.

She grinned, a child's smile of delight appearing on her pale features, before pointing towards the one patch of green on the horizon. The Wind colony arrived in his view, and the black haired youth stubbornly refused to acknowledge the nagging guilt that he had left Maria way behind in his planning. She had, after all, cared for him when he was too young to fend for himself.

He shook his head, driving away the thoughts, and focussed his imaginings instead on what to pack.

Fiona frowned into a pout when Raven fell into a sulky silence. She instead began talking. Raven noticed it when she started acting like someone was responding.

'Whom are you talking to?' he asked when there was a lull in her chatter. She stared at him through her unnerving red eyes, and he stared back, just as intensely.

Finally, with a shrug and a smile, she pointed behind her. 'Zeke.'

Raven started silently, keeping eye contact with the mad girl. He looked around, quite sure that they were alone, and nearly gulped. But it wasn't in his character to gulp because he was all alone with a girl who was possibly insane. She **had** come from a capsule hadn't she?

She sighed, sensing his train of thought.

'I can hear him. And he can hear me.' She said, and smiled simply, as if this explained everything and anything. And to her, it did. Raven leaned back with s muted sigh. Just what had he gotten himself into?

Zeke roared into the quiet, and the four, being the Liger, Zeke, Fiona and Raven traveled quickly in comfortable silence.

'Raaaaaaveeeeeeeeen!'

Maria frowned tightly at the boy who stood defiantly in front of her, with a curious looking Fiona peering around Raven's shoulder. Zeke, in his original form growled inquiringly from under Fiona, where she was sitting. The trio had walked into the village, and had immediately been confronted in the worst kind of way.

By the parental figure.

'I can't believe you! Shirking your chores, racing off to god knows where, and bringing back some kind of deranged toy as a zoid? This goes beyond me Raven!' She grabbed his ear, and yanked. 'Ow! Watch it Maria!' he yelled, and she dragged him off. Zeke and Fiona glanced at each other, and snickered before following the two.

'OW! Let me go!'

'The Reverend should yell at you too young man!'

'Maria!'

The shrieks faded as the group left the village behind, along with the stares. Fiona's appearance generally excited a few rumors instantly, and both she and Zeke were happy to leave behind the swirling masses of activity.

A tall man with glasses and dark clothing immerged from a simple home, and glanced with weary amusement at the two who were making their way towards him. But he frowned in confusion at the two who were not known to him.

A girl riding a zoid that responded to the rider, not to programming? This was odd in extreme.

'Raven-' he said mildly, and the sibling-like bickering stopped completely. 'Who are your friends?'

Both Maria and Raven fell silent, turning in unison to see the girl and organoid, who halted at the attention. Fiona's sensitive skin stained red with an embarrassed flush, and Zeke snorted.

Raven snapped away from Maria's hold.

'Fiona.' He said curtly. 'Zeke.' He neither bothered to point or further introduce them. 'I assume you can figure out who is who for yourselves.' He said icily, fingering his ear with disdain. Maria had the grace to blush, but whether that was from anger that stemmed from his rudeness, or embarrassment, none knew.

The Reverend smiled at the two, before bending to look in the girl's eyes. 'You are no ordinary friend of our young Raven, I'm guessing?' Fiona grinned. The reverend smiled gently in return, and sat down on the grass next to the dirt trail that led to his humble abode.

Maria sat, folding skirts under her legs as she sat sideways. Fiona sat on top of Zeke, who plopped on the ground, and promptly curled up to rest, or to recharge his used batteries, as it were. He was exhausted. Fiona stroked his head as he went into sleep mode, and watched as Raven slid down as well. The grass wholly welcomed them, and Fiona felt the fibers gently, reveling in her sense of touch as the two semi-adults began to talk about Raven, her, and Zeke. She gently fell asleep, lulled by the voices, and by the quiet humming that revealed that Zeke was peacefully sleeping his fatigue away.

Raven watched silently as Fiona fell asleep across from him. The reverend, sitting next to Zeke and the girl, noticed too, but said nothing and let the exhausted pair dream away.

'So.'

The quiet voice of Maria made him look up, however, from Fiona's fluttering lashes. His eyebrow quirked in question.

'You're planning to leave now, right?' she asked, staring at the ground. 'You're planning to leave us all and adventure with someone you've only known a few hours.' Raven sighed.

'I've always wanted to leave this place.' He said, matter-of-factly. 'I've never wanted to farm, and you have always known this. Of course I'm leaving. And for Fiona and Zeke, we've saved each of our lives, and ironically enough, I want to make sure she and Zeke find whatever their missing.'

The Reverend interrupted.

'Yes, about that. Are you sure about her? Please tell the story I've sensed you know.' He asked lightly.

Raven sighed dramatically, though not loud, as to waken the sleeping duo. He carefully retold the story; fairly edited to make sure Maria didn't lock him in her kitchen, forbidding him to go anywhere. As he told about the wild zoid that he had somehow irked, he wondered why a pilot had been out alone, and had chased **him** of all people, on a hoverboard in the middle of nowhere.

'And, after I piloted the Liger, we both knew that we should journey away from the village, to make sure that the peace was protected, and no more angry wild zoids would hunt us to the Wind Colony.' He finished, rather blandly.

Maria snorted. But the holy man nodded in thought, and Maria gaped at him, incredulous. But all that was said between the two older people was a look, and a wink. Raven didn't comment. He saw no reason to.

As the Reverend opened his mouth to respond, a huge blast from the Wind Colony rocked everyone, and a great cloud of smoke rose from the village, which everyone was currently vacating. Raven rose to his feet at once, and a startled Fiona and Zeke were shaken out of their snooze. Maria watched as the one person she regarded as a brother vanished at a run towards the unprotected colony.

'Nice to meet you.' Murmured a small voice, and the blonde haired child raced away on the organoid for the Shield Liger. Raven was already inside, and searching with the scanners he knew about for the threat on the Colony. Fiona watched as Zeke turned himself into organic energy, and flew into the Liger, animating it significantly. Fiona smiled and waved, then ducked as a red bird-like zoid called a Redler flew low overhead, threatening the denizens with it's guns.

Dust, stirred by the zoid's attack, made the scene hard to see, and irritated eyes and throats. Many sought shelter inside their homes, and the Reverend and Maria were soon found directing children to their mothers, and ushering others into safety. Fiona, found by Maria, was shepherded into the church, where many others awaited the attack to end.

'People of the Wind Colony, and Citizens of the Elemia Desert. This is the Arcobaleno Tribe. We want the Organoid that you possess, and if it is not turned over in the next two hours to our Tribe's current base in the ruins west of here, our zoids will destroy your Colony.' A voice rang out over the loud speakers. Fiona watched the frenzy the words ignited and sighed. 'Zeke, where are you two?'

The dust had turned into an obstacle, and Raven couldn't see. So he waited for the dust to settle so that he wouldn't haplessly destroy the Colony. He waited much too long, for he heard the words that the Redler expelled, and he knew what his decision would be. He grinned.

'Let's go, Zeke.'

Hi everybody! Tis Fiona here, and great to hear from my fantastic reviewers again! (BIG wink wink!) It's 12;44 in the morning, and here I am, typing my little fingers away. Type in a review, and make it all worthwhile! Please?


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